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The country's largest aluminium maker, Vedanta Aluminium (VAL), is unlikely to start operation at its Lanjigarh unit in the near future as it is yet to secure bauxite supply to run the plant.

“It is very difficult to give a timeline. Unless we get secured source of supply of raw material, we will not be able to reopen the plant,” said president of Vedanta Aluminium, Mukesh Kumar.

He also said there was no formal communication from the Odisha government regarding supply of bauxite. Vedanta Aluminium shut down its 1 million tonne Lanjigarh refinery unit a fortnight ago, due to shortage of bauxite.

The unit requires 10,000 tonne of bauxite per day to run at full capacity. Kumar said the company was not able to source the bauxite from other states.

Earlier, the company sourced bauxites from Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. However, after the halting of operation in mines in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the plant was not able to source raw material from other states. Talking about possible layoffs at the plant, Kumar said there would be some layoffs due to the shutting down.